Construction Software Companies & Consultants in Kirkland, WA

Hoylu is a software company that makes a cloud-based platform for planning and coordinating complex construction projects. Its US entity, Hoylu, Inc., is based in Kirkland, Washington. The product brings digital whiteboarding, structured planning and task tracking into one shared workspace. The company says its tools are used by more than 130,000 people, mostly on construction, design and engineering teams that are spread across many companies and locations.

Who the platform serves

Hoylu packages its software for the main groups on a building project. Each group gets its own version of the platform:

• General contractors running multi-trade schedules
• Trade contractors who coordinate their work with other trades
• Owners who want a clear view of project progress
• Design and design-build firms

Customer quotes on the company's website come from large builders such as Gilbane Building Company, Chandos Construction, Swinerton and Skanska Norway. A Swinerton project manager says schedules on its Hoylu projects improved by 20 to 40 percent. A Gilbane scheduling executive describes using it on a healthcare project worth several billion dollars. Hoylu has also published a case study about Walbridge using the platform to prepare a Scout Motors production facility.

Products and capabilities

The core product is a workspace with no fixed edges. It lets teams start with loose brainstorming and then move into tightly structured planning on the same canvas. Hoylu offers ready-made templates with built-in rules for specific industries and planning methods, so teams can keep their existing processes instead of changing them to fit the software.

The company points to Lean construction in particular. Its users mention features such as swimlanes, task cards, charts, Kanban boards and space for meeting notes, which can be adapted to whichever Lean approach a project uses.

Integrations let users import large batches of tasks at once and embed video, so communication and open work items can be seen in one place.

Hoylu describes its strength as a mix of two things. Planning steps that would be slow in a plain whiteboard app are automated, while the free-form flexibility that dedicated scheduling tools often lack is kept. The company's plans include live tasks, several plans in one workspace, better reporting and mobile apps that make it easier for field crews to report progress.

Background and support

Hoylu has worked in the construction sector for close to ten years. It started as a hardware vendor selling large touch-wall installations for planning rooms. Over time it moved to a lightweight software-as-a-service model that gives every user the same shared wall on their own device.

The company says it built the platform together with leading global builders of complex projects, and that its staff works from several countries. Customers get a getting-started guide, a product knowledge base, a system status page, downloadable apps, and support tickets for technical, training and billing questions.

Hoylu also publishes eBooks, videos, customer stories, a blog and a mentoring series called Mentoring with Marius. The website is available in English and German, and buyers can request a demo before buying.